In mathematics, and more specifically in general topology, compactness is a property that generalizes the notion of a subset of Euclidean space being closed and bounded. Examples include a closed interval, a rectangle, or a finite set of points. This notion is defined for more general topological spaces than Euclidean space in various ways.
In mathematical analysis and in probability theory, a σ-algebra on a set X is a collection Σ of subsets of X that includes X itself, is closed under complement, and is closed under countable unions.
This is a glossary of some terms used in the branch of mathematics known as topology. Although there is no absolute distinction between different areas of topology, the focus here is on general topology. The following definitions are also fundamental to algebraic topology, differential topology and geometric topology.
In mathematics, a Borel set is any set in a topological space that can be formed from open sets through the operations of countable union, countable intersection, and relative complement. Borel sets are named after Émile Borel.
In mathematics, general topology is the branch of topology that deals with the basic set-theoretic definitions and constructions used in topology. It is the foundation of most other branches of topology, including differential topology, geometric topology, and algebraic topology. Another name for general topology is point-set topology.
In mathematics, a Baire space is a topological space such that every intersection of a countable collection of open dense sets in the space is also dense. Complete metric spaces and locally compact Hausdorff spaces are examples of Baire spaces according to the Baire category theorem. The spaces are named in honor of René-Louis Baire who introduced the concept.
In mathematics, the Hilbert cube, named after David Hilbert, is a topological space that provides an instructive example of some ideas in topology. Furthermore, many interesting topological spaces can be embedded in the Hilbert cube; that is, can be viewed as subspaces of the Hilbert cube.
In functional analysis and related areas of mathematics, Fréchet spaces, named after Maurice Fréchet, are special topological vector spaces. They are generalizations of Banach spaces. Fréchet spaces are locally convex spaces that are complete with respect to a translation-invariant metric. In contrast to Banach spaces, the metric need not arise from a norm.
In mathematics, the lower limit topology or right half-open interval topology is a topology defined on the set of real numbers; it is different from the standard topology on and has a number of interesting properties. It is the topology generated by the basis of all half-open intervals [a,b), where a and b are real numbers.
In mathematics, the Gelfand representation in functional analysis has two related meanings:
In mathematics, specifically in harmonic analysis and the theory of topological groups, Pontryagin duality explains the general properties of the Fourier transform on locally compact abelian groups, such as , the circle, or finite cyclic groups. The Pontryagin duality theorem itself states that locally compact abelian groups identify naturally with their bidual.
In the mathematical discipline of general topology, a Polish space is a separable completely metrizable topological space; that is, a space homeomorphic to a complete metric space that has a countable dense subset. Polish spaces are so named because they were first extensively studied by Polish topologists and logicians—Sierpiński, Kuratowski, Tarski and others. However, Polish spaces are mostly studied today because they are the primary setting for descriptive set theory, including the study of Borel equivalence relations. Polish spaces are also a convenient setting for more advanced measure theory, in particular in probability theory.
In mathematics, a Radon measure, named after Johann Radon, is a measure on the σ-algebra of Borel sets of a Hausdorff topological space X that is finite on all compact sets, outer regular on all Borel sets, and inner regular on open sets. These conditions guarantee that the measure is "compatible" with the topology of the space, and most measures used in mathematical analysis and in number theory are indeed Radon measures.
In functional analysis and related branches of mathematics, the Banach–Alaoglu theorem states that the closed unit ball of the dual space of a normed vector space is compact in the weak* topology. A common proof identifies the unit ball with the weak* topology as a closed subset of a product of compact sets with the product topology. As a consequence of Tychonoff's theorem, this product, and hence the unit ball within, is compact.
In mathematics, the spectrum of a C*-algebra or dual of a C*-algebraA, denoted Â, is the set of unitary equivalence classes of irreducible *-representations of A. A *-representation π of A on a Hilbert space H is irreducible if, and only if, there is no closed subspace K different from H and {0} which is invariant under all operators π(x) with x ∈ A. We implicitly assume that irreducible representation means non-null irreducible representation, thus excluding trivial representations on one-dimensional spaces. As explained below, the spectrum  is also naturally a topological space; this is similar to the notion of the spectrum of a ring.
In topology and related areas of mathematics a topological property or topological invariant is a property of a topological space which is invariant under homeomorphisms. That is, a property of spaces is a topological property if whenever a space X possesses that property every space homeomorphic to X possesses that property. Informally, a topological property is a property of the space that can be expressed using open sets.
In mathematics, an LF-space is a topological vector space V that is a locally convex inductive limit of a countable inductive system of Fréchet spaces. This means that V is a direct limit of the system in the category of locally convex topological vector spaces and each is a Fréchet space.
In mathematics, in the field of topology, a topological space is said to be hemicompact if it has a sequence of compact subsets such that every compact subset of the space lies inside some compact set in the sequence. Clearly, this forces the union of the sequence to be the whole space, because every point is compact and hence must lie in one of the compact sets.
In mathematics, a harmonious set is a subset of a locally compact abelian group on which every weak character may be uniformly approximated by strong characters. Equivalently, a suitably defined dual set is relatively dense in the Pontryagin dual of the group. This notion was introduced by Yves Meyer in 1970 and later turned out to play an important role in the mathematical theory of quasicrystals. Some related concepts are model sets, Meyer sets, and cut-and-project sets.
